Swedish is a North Germanic language of the Indo-European family. With over 10 million native speakers, this Scandinavian language is spoken primarily in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Aland Islands. Swedish is also mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish; speakers of these different languages can readily understand each other. Along with the other North Germanic languages, Swedish is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. It is currently the largest of the North Germanic languages by number of speakers. Swedish is an official language of Sweden and Finland, and recognized as a regional language of Estonia.